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Ducie Island (pronounced /?/), a rarely visited island atoll, has been part of the Pitcairn Islands since 1902. There are no permanent inhabitants. It is very nearly antipodal to Dubai, UAE.
The atoll is located 540 kilometres (340 mi) east of Pitcairn at 24°40′09″S 124°47′11″W / 24.66917°S 124.78639°W and has a total area, including the lagoon, of 3.9 square kilometres (1.5 sq mi). It is 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) long, northeast to southwest, and about 1.6 km (one mile) wide. There are four islets on the rim of the atoll:
- Acadia Islet (the largest, along the north and east rim). Larger than the atoll's other three islets combined, it is located in the northeast of the island and resembles a long, thin sausage in shape. It is largely forested.
- Pandora Islet (second largest, in the south)
- Edwards Islet (immediately east of Pandora Islet)
- Westward Islet (smallest, west of Pandora Islet). It appears to be sandy but is composed of coral rubble and dead shells. The islet is in the form of a horseshoe ridge, the highest point of which is about 15 feet (4-5 m) above the average water level.[1]
The land area is 0.7 square kilometres (170 acres). The maximum elevation is 4 metres (13 ft). Seventy percent of the land is forested with Tournefortia argentea (a common tree throughout many of the Pacific Ocean islands), which grows to a height of 6 metres (20 ft). Two other plant species were reported in 1971 but were not found in 1987[citation needed]. The lagoon is deep and noted for its poisonous fish and dangerous sharks.[2]
History
Portuguese sailor Pedro Fernandes de Queirós discovered Ducie on 26 January 1606 and named it La Encarnación. It was later rediscovered by the British in 1791 by Captain Edward Edwards who commanded the Pandora while searching for the mutineers from the Bounty. Ducie Island is named after Baron Francis Ducie, a captain in the Royal Navy.
The island was claimed in 1867 for the United States under the Guano Islands Act and the UK annexed the island in 1902.
For the purposes of amateur radio, Ducie became a DXCC country on November 16, 2001 and the first expedition was led by Kan Mizoguchi, JA1BK, in March 2002 using the VP6DI callsign.
In 2003, Canadian amateur radio operators launched a DXpedition on Ducie Island using the callsign VP6DIA.
In February 2008, an international group of amateur radio operators visited Ducie for a DXpedition using the callsign VP6DX. They made 183,686 contacts, setting a new record for DXpeditions.
References
- ^ Rehder, Harald A. and John E. Randall. Ducie Atoll: Its History, Phisiography, and Biota. The Smithsonian Institution January 15, 1975
- ^ Pitcairn Islands Study Center
The (London) Times, December 17, 1821
External links
Coordinates: 24°41′S 124°47′W / 24.683°S 124.783°W
- A visit to Ducie Island (April 1998) with some photos
- Map of Ducie Island
- VP6DXpedition 2008
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